1. Field of the Invention
A system to organize, store and dispense a plurality of tablets in a predetermined therapeutic regime.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The treatment of various medical disorders often involves a complex therapeutic regimen where the patient is required to take medications on specific days and times of day. The patient may be required to take a given medicament only at certain times in the regimen, and other medicaments at other times in the regimen. The compliment of such regimens often results in low patient compliance.
Furthermore, the misuse of prescribed drugs is a serious problem for persons who are easily confused, have short memories or are physically or mentally infirmed. The misuse of prescribed drugs is particularly evident among senior citizens. As a result, thousands of people die each year from failure to take medication at prescribed times or in proper dosages, from failure to follow other instructions relating to the medication, or from complications of side effects or adverse interaction of medications or drugs accidently or carelessly prescribed for and administered to the same patient.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,169,001 shows a container for a plurality of medicaments to be used in a therapeutic regimen for a patient to facilitate the prescribed sequence and interval of application. The container includes a plurality of generally planar blister cards having medicament containing cavities. Each blister card is adapted to contain a single medicament, and is provided with a marginal region for receiving medicament and administration indicia. The container is further provided with a base for retaining the plurality of blister cards in a generally vertical position with the marginal region of the blister cards extending upmost. The blister cards are retained in sequential arrangement by the prescribed time of day of administration of the medicament contained in each blister card.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,899 discloses an apparatus and articles for use in dispensing medication. Control of the medication is accomplished by assigning unique numerical (or alpha-numerical) code identifications to each of the many medications prescribed for patient use. A typical dosage, usually a unit dosage, of each medication is placed in a sealed packet and each packet is marked with the code identification of the medication contained in the packet.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,657 relates to a method, system and related apparatus and articles for use in dispensing medication. Control of the medication is accomplished by assigning unique numerical or alpha-numerical code identifications to each of the many medications prescribed for patient use. The apparatus includes a set of individual envelopes which are produced in continuous web form, similar to multi-part business forms, and which can be processed through computer controlled printers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,473,156 teaches an apparatus for accurately selecting, storing and dispensing multiple varieties of pills at preselected time intervals such as morning, noon, evening and night includes a separate pill container for each unique variety of pill to be dispensed. Each pill container is identified by a distinctive color or colors to indicate the time interval(s) during which the pill in it are to be dispensed. For example, each container for pills to be dispensed in the morning will be identified by the color red; at noon, by the color yellow; in the evening, the color blue; and at night the color black. Any particular container will, therefore, be identified by color. A pill tray includes a plurality of pill holding compartments arranged in columns identified with each of the days of the week and in rows, each row representing one of the time intervals, such as morning, noon, evening and night. Each pill holding compartment in the row representing morning is colored red, the row representing noon is colored yellow, the evening row is colored blue, and the night row is colored black. The tray is loaded by putting one pill from each container in each of the compartments colored the same as one of the colors identifying that container. Sliding panels are provided as covers for each of the columns, and the patient can access the proper medication by uncovering the appropriate compartment at the appropriate time interval. For example, on Monday morning, the patient slides the "Monday" panel down far enough to uncover the Monday morning compartment, removes the pills and ingests them.
The following are additional examples of the prior art: U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,739; U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,726; U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,845; U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,085; U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,492; U.S. Pat. No. 4,593,819; U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,580; U.S. Pat. No. 4,318,477; U.S. Pat. No. 5,064,071; U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,796; GB 2 250 978 A; WO 92102202; and GB 2 079 250 A.